Days In the Dark
by Bleakshow
Summary: After a nasty battle with Cyclonia, Aerrow spends some time on the dark side. His squadron spends the time looking for him. Rated T just in case.


Aerrow tapped his blades against the skimmer. Nothing. Panicked, he put the two blades together, as if this would somehow re-power the crystal. Looking over at his enemy, Aerrow saw that Dark Ace was having the same problem with his sword.

Glancing around in the hope of finding something that could be used as a weapon, Aerrow's breathe caught in his throat as he noticed the faint purple glow pulsing behind the seat of Dark Ace's skimmer. He remembered the last incident with the purple crystals and shuddered.

"Where is everybody?" hissed Aerrow, scanning the cloudy skies for his squadron. All of a sudden, he was winded by Dark Ace, whose weapon seemed to be working perfectly. Caught off guard, he stumbled towards the edge of the skimmer, barely managing to keep his balance.

He realized that if Dark Ace's skimmer and weapon worked, so would his. But his enemy realized this sooner and Aerrow suddenly found his twin blades tumbling into the wastelands. He swore, louder then he had intended to.

"Watch your language." Dark Ace laughed.

He could now do nothing but dodge Dark Ace's attacks, which weren't very strong because Dark Ace was also trying to maneuver the skimmer. Dodging lightning bolts and completely soaked, the Dark Ace said something that was drowned out by the rain against the skimmer along with claps of thunder.

Hail clanged against Aerrow's armour and pelted every part of him that was exposed. He couldn't have seen Dark Ace's sword coming at him if the crystal didn't light it up.

Aerrow hoped he could get back to the Condor and dry off soon_. _He wondered why the Talons were still attacking in this weather, completely oblivious to the fact that the skimmer he was on was the only one in the sky. Paying more attention to dodging the blows coming at him, Aerrow didn't notice that they were entering Cyclonia.

* * *

"Put him down here, Junko" Piper commanded, pointing a bed.

"Is Finn gonna be alright?" the Wallop placed the blonde boy he had been carrying gently on the bottom bunk.

"He's gonna be fine, don't worry Junko" Piper reached up to place a hand on Junko's massive shoulders, which were trembling. "It's all my fault! I should have looked after my buddy better!" Junko wailed, watery eyes watching Finn for any sign of movement.

"Don't cry, it's not your fault…" Piper patted Junko in an attempt to calm him down. Stork, hearing the commotion, entered, eyes darting around the mess that was Finn's room.

"Did you find them?" he asked Piper and Junko. "Or did they plummet into the wastelands?" he asked, smiling as if he had just told a joke. Junko looked startled.

"We found Finn, he was unconscious on one of the Talon's skimmers, and the Talon was trying to push him off. Luckily, Junko saved him." the girl explained. She smiled at Junko, who smiled back meekly. "And you're not helping" she whispered to Stork.

Shrugging, Stork approached the bed, with Junko and Piper following. "Let's see…"

as Stork was examining Finn, Junko erupted into loud sobs, shaking and wailing. _Oh, boy. _Stork and Piper exchanged a look.

Taking a hint, Piper took Junko gently by the elbow. "Um… how about we let Stork work in peace? Let's go…" Junko allowed himself to be led out of the room, but stopped in the door way.

"Take care of him…" he wailed, waving as if Finn could see him.

Finn sat upright sharply, smashing his head against something above him. He yelped and felt around blindly for a light switch. "_Why is it so dark?"_

Suddenly, the lights flickered on and Finn blinked, eyes not adjusted to the brightness yet. Stork stood by the light switch, smiling.

"I see you're awake."

"Of course I am" Finn grumbled.

His blue eyes widened as he looked around at what he thought was his room. "What did you do to my room?" he saw everything was neatly arranged.

"Yes, well, I was told to wait here with you. Got bored." Stork smiled, eye twitching slightly. "Bet you didn't know the carpet was that colour." The Merb's gloved hands indicated the floor.

"I didn't." Finn replied. "And I wish I never did. That's an ugly colour."

"Well, everything is arranged in most dangerous, starting with your guitar, over there" he pointed into a corner. "And least dangerous going that way."

"Oh, that'll make everything easy to find." Finn said sarcastically.

There was an awkward silence, Stork shifting his weight from foot to foot and Finn staring up at the top bunk.

"How do you feel?" Stork asked suddenly.

"Sore." Finn couldn't think of a better word to describe how he felt.

Stork nodded, looking thoughtful. "Do you remember anything?"

Finn didn't know what Stork was talking about. "About what?" the blonde realized that something must have happened, or Stork wouldn't have been in his room. "What happened?" he asked, after a moment of thought.

"We lost to the Cylconians." the Merb replied. "Badly."

"Oh." Finn paused "Was anyone else hurt?"

"Just bruised. It started hailing, very hard." Stork hoped that maybe Finn would remember the hail, but if he did, Finn didn't show it. "You hit your head, probably when you fell onto one of the Talon's skimmers." Stork explained. Finn just nodded.

This time, the silence was interrupted by Piper who entered the room. "Hey Finn, good to see you're awake."

"Hi." Finn waved from the bed, sitting up.

"Junko wants to see you." she said to him. "Can he come in?"

Finn shrugged. It didn't matter to him.

Piper grinned at Stork. "This should be interesting."

"Junko has been very… worried about you." Piper explained, seeing Finn's confused expression. "I'll go get him."

She returned quickly, with Junko practically dragging her along. "Finn! Are you okay? "

Finn was surprised. Junko was his best friend, but he had never been this nice. "I'm fine." the sharpshooter replied slowly.

"Does it hurt?"

"Junko, he's fine." Piper said.

As Finn and Junko talked, Piper and Stork had a more serious side conversation, speaking in hushed whispers.

"Does he know where Aerrow is?" Piper asked.

"He never mentioned Aerrow and neither did I. He probably thinks that Aerrow is safe." Stork replied. "He doesn't remember anything that happened to himself during the battle, I doubt he'd remember what happened to Aerrow." Stork added, seeing Piper's panicked look.

"We have to go out and look for Aerrow. I think the worst of the storm has passed." Piper said.

"The condor needs repairs, and your heliscooter probably does too."

"Well, you and Junko need to get on that." she paused to think. "Radarr would probably be able to help with that…" she glanced around the room. "Is he on the ship?"

"I, uh, don't think so…" Stork glanced around too. "He probably dropped into the wastelands, along with his head pilot." he mumbled.

"Stork!" exclaimed Piper, she had heard him.

"We have to find Aerrow!" she continued. "Can you and Junko start repairing everything that needs to be repaired?" Stork nodded.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Don't worry, I'll find something for me and Finn to do." Piper replied.

"Junko, get me something to drink." Finn ordered just as Stork and Piper ended their conversation. Junko turned to head for the kitchen, but Piper stopped him.

"Finn can get his own drink. He can walk by himself. Besides, you need to help Stork with repairs."

Junko didn't argue. He followed Stork out the room.

"Good news!" Stork called. "Aerrow's skimmer is in the hangar!"

Piper didn't really see this as good news. She didn't care about the skimmer; she just wanted to find Aerrow. Had Radarr brought it back?

"Finn, go look for Radarr." Piper ordered.

"But I'm injured!"

"You just bumped your head. You can still walk." She snapped. "And we still need to find Aerrow." She added softly.

His eyes widened. "You mean Aerrow's not here?" Piper shook her head solemly. Finn got up as slowly as possible, but he did at least go to look for the furry little creature.

Meanwhile, Piper started planning out their search. It was hard to concentrate with Finn calling Radarr, the mechanical noise, and the sound of rain against the Condor's hull, so she hadn't gotten much done when Stork and Junko entered the kitchen for a break.

Stork over Piper's shoulder, at the maps spread out on the kitchen table. "This one's outdated." he pointed to one of them.

She groaned and buried her head in her hands.

"On the bright side, we fixed almost all of the Condor." Junko announced between bites of flamecorn.

"Great" she said sarcastically. "_Almost_ all."

That was when Finn entered, Radarr dangling from his good hand. "I found him!" Piper sighed in relief, but something was wrong. Aerrow's furry blue co-pilot clawed at Finn until he was dropped. Radarr was trying to tell the crew something. He ran in circles and used hand motions and even added sound effects, but nobody understood. Still, he didn't stop.

"Tropical, guitar solo, convertible?" Finn guessed, only to have Radarr shake his head.

"Doomsday, sky-sharks, crash!" Stork corrected.

"No, that's not it." Piper said before Junko could guess. She shook her head and squinted thoughtfully at Radarr. "Jump, fight, skimmer…" the creature nodded, his long ears shaking. He motioned that Piper was close, almost there.

"You jumped out of the skimmer when Aerrow was fighting?"

He squealed and shook his head. He motioned again.

"If only the thing could write." Finn muttered, rubbing his arm where he'd been scratched.

Radarr pointed at the picture of Dark Ace on the fridge, courtesy of Finn.

"Dark Ace…?" Piper was beginning to understand. "Dark Ace… beat Aerrow?" Radarr shrugged.

* * *

&

Before you start getting pissed at me for starting a new story, I actually wrote this a while ago. I kind of forgot about it, and I recently re-found it. So I decided to put it up.

Sorry about the lack of updates, I've had major writer's block. Not to mention school started recently. But I've been working on my other stories, so I'll update as soon as I can.


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